Inside The Bills

With Fred Jackson now lost for the season with a sprained MCL Buffalo is down to a pair of running backs in C.J. Spiller and Tashard Choice. When asked if the Bills might make a roster move to add a third back, head coach Chan Gailey said it’s one of their considerations.

The other consideration is to make use of FB Corey McIntyre.

“We might do that and we might just let Corey kind of be the third back. We might go that direction too,” said Gailey. “There’s a couple of ways to think about it and we’ll have to decide which is the best way to go.”

McIntyre does not have a carry on the season, but he does have one reception for nine yards.

Bills FB Corey McIntyre has been a guy forced to do a lot of the dirty work on offense as a lead blocker and on special teams. In 2012 however, he may see his role expand into a pass catching option.

McIntyre has caught several more passes in training camp practices through the first week of workouts. Head coach Chan Gailey said that’s not by accident.

“We’ve asked him to catch more passes in this camp than we’ve asked him to catch in the last two camps combined,” said Gailey. “He’s done a good job going outside and doing some different things so yes it’s going to evolve a little bit more, but he’s done a good job of accepting the challenge of doing some different things that he hasn’t had to do in years past.”

Bills FB Corey McIntyre is going to be at the Quaker Steak and Lube tonight (Friday) on Transit Road in Williamsville from 5-6 pm tonight to help support the Rock Out Hunger campaign.

McIntyre kicked off the 97 Rock “Operation; Rock Out Hunger” campaign by donating $1,500 dollars to help the Food Bank of Western New York. McIntyre is donating $1.00 for every item donated up until $3,800.

He’ll be joined by teammates including running back Fred Jackson, running back C. J. Spiller, safety/linebacker Bryan Scott, wide receiver Naaman Roosevelt and others as they help DJ Jickster from 97 Rock collect much needed food donations for the Food Bank from 5-6 pm.

97 Rock’s DJ Jickster moved into a Food Bank of WNY trailer on November 16th and is calling it home for seven days as he promotes the “Rock Out Hunger” food drive to fill the trailer. Go to 97 Rock’s website for more info.

As we showed Wednesday Fred Jackson is the 8th leading vote getter among NFL players when it comes to fan Pro Bowl voting. He also leads all AFC running backs among fan voting. Here are some other Bills players that are in the hunt in fan Pro Bowl voting to this point, but could use a bit more support.

Ryan Fitzpatrick is 3rd among AFC quarterbacks and needs more votes.

George Wilson is 2nd among AFC strong safeties, but needs more support to catch Troy Polamalu.

Nick Barnett is 3rd among AFC inside linebackers, but needs a lot of help to catch Indy’s Pat Angerer on a Colts defense that has not been good at all.

Corey McIntyre is 5th among AFC special teamers and needs some votes as well.

Though Kyle Williams (hamstring) is the headliner of the nicked up Bills this week, there’s another key player that was unable to practice fully on Thursday in FB Corey McIntyre.

“Corey was limited in what he could do out there,” said head coach Chan Gailey after practice Thursday. “He wasn’t full speed. Hopefully he can be back by Sunday.”

If McIntyre’s ankle injury, which he sustained in the Detroit game last Sunday keeps him out of this weekend’s game, Buffalo may have to make a move with respect to their roster. McIntyre is the only true fullback on the 53-man roster. They have Jehuu Caulcrick on the practice squad, but he’s only been with the team for a little more than a week.

McIntyre is also a valuable special teams contributor as he’s second on the team in special teams tackles.

On the plus side, Cordaro Howard (shoulder) practiced for the first time in over a week as he tries to come back from a shoulder injury suffered in Week 9. He was limited on Thursday.

Bills DT Kyle Williams is getting some Pro Bowl recognition from the guys over at ProFootballFocus.com.

The game tape and stat crunching site lists Williams as one of their three candidates to represent the AFC at DT. Here’s their write up.

Defensive Tackles

Jason Jones (Ten)*, Haloti Ngata (Bal)* & Kyle Williams (Buf)

Jones has always had the ability to get to the quarterback but now he’s playing the run as well as anyone. Ngata has suffered from overhype because he has the ability to do things others can’t. Now he’s really performing (although he has spent no an inconsiderable amount of time at DE). How Williams can play as well as he does with the wreckage around him in Buffalo is a question for the ages.

While it’s disappointing that the site has to take a pot shot at the rest of the defense to prop up Kyle, the listing is still well deserved. So be sure to vote for Kyle. The only other Bills player to get consideration was FB Corey McIntyre as an honorable mention.

Buffalobills.com has confirmed that FB Corey McIntyre has signed an extension with the Bills.

The six-year veteran was rewarded after a solid preseason in which McIntyre not only displayed lead blocking ability, but some receiving talent in the short passing game. McIntyre has also been a dependable special teams contributor in his time with Buffalo.

McIntyre, 31, is entering his third season with the Bills after originally signing with the club a month into the 2008 campaign. He’s appeared in 26 career games for Buffalo with six starts to his credit.

The two healthy tight ends on Buffalo’s roster were working with a couple of other players on the roster with respect to blocking assignments in practice Sunday morning.

With only Jonathan Stupar and Michael Matthews practicing for now, the coaching staff had fullbacks Rodney Ferguson and Corey McIntyre working on some blocking drills with the two tight ends.

Should the Bills not add another tight end to the roster prior to the team’s next preseason game, it bears watching as to whether the staff makes more use of their fullbacks for tight end blocking type roles here in the short term.